Lebanon: Israel's troops put new government under pressure

Lebanon's political leadership remains steadfast in their viewpoint that Israel has to fulfil all parts of the latest ceasefire agreement between Israel and Hezbollah.

The deal, which ended in late January, stipulates among other aspects that the Lebanese army will control southern Lebanon with at least 5,000 soldiers in place of Israeli troops, which would have to withdraw.

Israel, however, said this week that it would keep its troops in five locations near the border, after having accused the Lebanese army of not deploying the required troops quickly enough.

Israel sees Lebanon unable to guarantee security in the border region where it fears that the Lebanese Hezbollah militia could resume its attacks on Israeli residents.

"The Lebanese army is ready to fulfil all its duties along the border," Lebanon's President Joseph Aoun, Prime Minister Nawaf Salam and Parliament Speaker Nabih Berri stated earlier this week.

In turn, they called the ongoing Israeli presence an "occupation of Lebanon" and said that they would turn to the UN Security Council to "address the Israeli violations and force Israel to withdraw." 

Meanwhile, the United Nations has called on both sides to comply with UN Resolution 1701.

"Today marks the end of the period set for the withdrawal of the Israel Defense Forces south of the Blue Line and the parallel Lebanese Armed Forces deployment to positions in southern Lebanon, as envisaged by the Cessation of Hostilities Understanding of 26 November 2024," the UN special coordinator for Lebanon, Jeanine Hennis-Plasschaert, and the UN peacekeepers UNIFIL said on Tuesday in a joint statement.

"Another delay in this process is not what we hoped would happen, not least because it continues a violation of United Nations Security Council Resolution 1701," the statement continued.

Resolution 1701 was passed in 2006 in the context of the end of war between Israel and Hezbollah at the time. It stipulates, among other things, that only UNIFIL troops and the Lebanese army are to be deployed in the Lebanese border area with Israel.

'Violation of UN Resolution 1701'

"Due to the altitude of the locations and the associated surveillance possibilities, Israel has a tactical advantage if it continues to be stationed there," Merin Abbass, head of the Friedrich-Ebert-Stiftung's Lebanon office in Beirut, told DW.

It is also understandable that the army has to protect Israeli villages near the border, he added.

"But this decision clearly violates UN Resolution 1701, which provides for the complete withdrawal of the Israeli army from Lebanon," Abbass said.

According to a statement by the Israeli Defense Forces' spokesperson Nadav Shoshani, these locations were chosen due to their security significance as well as their geographical proximity to Israeli communities.

They also provide vantage points that allow Israeli forces to monitor and prevent Hezbollah attacks or new attempts to entrench near the Israeli border, he said.

"This is a temporary measure until the Lebanese Armed Forces are able to fully implement the understandings," Shoshani stated.

However, the Israeli military observer Yaakov Lappin highlighted in a recent op-ed in the news outlet Jewish News Syndicate that "Hezbollah's willingness to adhere to the agreement and refrain from rebuilding its military infrastructure near the border is non-existent."

"It is primarily up to the Israeli Defense Forces (IDF) to continue to use force to prevent Hezbollah's re-entrenchment," he wrote.

The Lebanese political scientist Daoud Ramal believes that Israel has other objectives as well.

By occupying the five locations, Israel is aiming to completely override the UN-mandated Blue Line, the demarcation line between Israel and Lebanon, he told DW.

"Under the pretext of remaining in these strategically designated locations, Israel is nibbling away at more Lebanese territory," Ramal said, adding that "Israel is not pursuing a strategic military goal, because as long as it has its spy system, especially its satellites, it can monitor the whole of Lebanon."

Hezbollah: 'We will know how to deal with it'

Meanwhile, Hezbollah's Secretary-General Naim Qassem warned Israel on Sunday that its forces must withdraw completely from Lebanon.

"The Lebanese state must prevent Israel from remaining in the country," Qassem said in a broadcasted speech.

This is what the ceasefire agreement stipulates, and if Israel fails to adhere "we will know how to deal with it," he said.

The ceasefire agreement between Israel and Hezbollah was designed to end the war that started between Hezbollah and Israel in the aftermath of the Hamas attack in Israel on October 7, 2023, which left more than 1,100 dead. More than 250 people in Israel were kidnapped by Hamas, which is classified as a terrorist organization by Germany, the European Union, the US and some Arab states.

Hezbollah's military wing is also classified as terrorist organization by the US, Germany and several Sunni states.

"Hezbollah has always legitimized its existence with the Israeli presence in Lebanon," Abbass told DW. "In this respect, the current situation may well suit them."

The Lebanese observer Daoud Ramal said that Israel's continued presence in Lebanon could lead to the formation of armed Lebanese groups, as it was the case in the 1980s and 1990s.

These groups were affiliated with secular or Islamic Lebanese parties and carried out operations against Israel on Lebanese territory.

"Of course, such a repetition is not in the interest of international security and peace," Ramal told DW, adding that he does not expect a military response from Hezbollah at the moment.

Danger of political destabilization

This view is echoed by Merin Abbass.

He also sees that the continued presence of Israel's armed forces in Lebanon holds another problem, namely the internal political destabilization of Lebanon.

"It significantly weakens the reputation of President Joseph Aoun in Lebanon and with it that of the new Lebanese government," Abbass told DW.

"Lebanese politicians are now under pressure not only from Hezbollah, but from the entire Lebanese society, given that the problem is no longer between Hezbollah and Israel, but between the Lebanese state and Israel," he said. "In case this intensifies, it would hardly be in the interests of the international community."

This article was originally published in German.